Abstract
Teleoperated systems enable human control of robotic proxies and are particularly amenable to inaccessible environments unsuitable for autonomy. Examples include emergency response, underwater manipulation, and robot assisted minimally invasive surgery. However, teleoperation architectures have been predominantly employed in manipulation tasks, and are thus only useful when the robot is within reach of the task. This work introduces the idea of extending teleoperation to enable online human remote control of legged robots, or telelocomotion, to traverse challenging terrain. Traversing unpredictable terrain remains a challenge for autonomous legged locomotion, as demonstrated by robots commonly falling in high-profile robotics contests. Telelocomotion can reduce the risk of mission failure by leveraging the high-level understanding of human operators to command in real-time the gaits of legged robots. In this work, a haptic telelocomotion interface was developed. Two within-user studies validate the proof-of-concept interface: (i) The first compared basic interfaces with the haptic interface for control of a simulated hexapedal robot in various levels of traversal complexity; (ii) the second presents a physical implementation and investigated the efficacy of the proposed haptic virtual fixtures. Results are promising to the use of haptic feedback for telelocomotion for complex traversal tasks.
Highlights
Telerobots, or remotely controlled robotic proxies, combine the robustness, scalability, and precision of machines with human-in-the-loop control
The remaining mechanics are left to robot kinematics and the physics simulation engine for experiments conducted in the simulated environment
Teleoperation has been shown to be effective in task spaces too dangerous or otherwise non-ideal for human intervention
Summary
Telerobots, or remotely controlled robotic proxies, combine the robustness, scalability, and precision of machines with human-in-the-loop control. This teleoperation architecture extends human intervention to spaces that are too hazardous or otherwise unreachable by humans alone. In the particular case of emergency response, autonomy is still insufficient, and human first-responders risk their lives to navigate and operate in extreme conditions, oftentimes with stressful task constraints. This work is motivated to alleviate this human risk by working towards human-controlled, semi-autonomous and legged robot proxies that can both navigate and dexterously interact in difficult and potentially sensitive environments.
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